


The Story of Nishimura

by boredom



Category: Dororo (Anime 2019)
Genre: Ableism, Ableist Language, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Hyakkimaru (Dororo) is a Good Sibling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 21:41:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21125678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boredom/pseuds/boredom
Summary: Nishimura wants to be great. He wants to have power. He wants to have glory. He knows how to get it: he’ll make a deal with demons (The Buddha is overrated anyways).The demons ask for a child sacrifice in return for power. The target Nishimura chose should be easy pickings. Yeah, he’s got an older brother, but said brother missing both arms, a leg, and is blind. What could possibly go wrong?





	The Story of Nishimura

**Author's Note:**

> The ableism tag comes from people in this story underestimating Hyakkimaru because of his prosthetics and discriminating against him because of them. It's not framed in a positive light, but I understand if some people don't want to read about the discrimination of a disabled character.

In this world, power and strength were the only two things people cared about. Nishimura had neither of those things. He was a lowly peddler selling his wares in a remote mountain town. Hardly worth a mention. In any other story, he’d be a background character. Perhaps, he’d be a friendly passer-by giving advice and directions to our main characters. 

He knew this about himself. He hated this about himself. He wanted to be a great warrior. He wanted to be feared. He wanted to be showered with jewels and women. He wanted to drink sake in a mansion without a care in the world, just like those useless lords and samurai who strutted around like they were hot shit. 

Nothing of note happened the day he decided to fully turn away from the path of the Buddha. The day had not been particularly bad. He had made some money. He hadn’t gotten mugged. Hadn’t even burned his tongue on his food. But he made a choice. He walked deep along the mountain pass where demons were known to be plentiful. 

“Demons!” He called, “I’ve come to make a deal with you.” 

The air shifted, power crackling just below the surface, like lightning before it struck. He shivered. 

“I want absolute power! I want strength! I want to be feared and respected! Name your price, anything! I will give it to you.” He bowed, praying (the irony was lost on him) that they accepted his proposal and gave him what he sought. 

A voice, spoke. It was almost as if it were in his very head. “Anything?” it asked. 

“Anything.” It occurred to him at that moment that this was a perfect opportunity to be eaten. He probably should have thought this through just a bit more.

Several voices whispered. The wind picked up. He kept his eyes downcast. How does one be respectful towards a demon (demons? How many were here?)?

“We want a sacrifice.” 

“A child.”

“Bring us a child.”

“Boy or girl. It doesn’t matter.” 

“We want a child.” 

oOoOoOo

“So the only way to get to the next town is through a dangerous mountain pass?” Dororo asked. His shoulders sagged. Nothing could ever be easy, could it? That’d be asking for too much. 

The man nodded. “It’s about a three day journey during the summer. During the winter it can turn into a whole week. And that’s if you’re lucky.” 

Dororo straightened up. He wasn’t going to let a little thing like a mountain pass slow them down! Besides, they had been in plenty of dangerous situations before and had always come out okay. Except for the one time Hyakkimaru lost his leg. And the one time Hyakkimaru almost got his face cut off. And the one time Dororo was captured by an enemy army and almost sacrificed to a ghost fox demon. And the one time he was almost eaten by a garbage monster. And--wow. They really had rotten luck. 

He turned to make some comment about this to Hyakkimaru, only to discover he had walked away. 

“Hey! Aniki! You can’t just leave without telling me!” He turned to run after him. 

“You’re not thinking about taking the pass by yourself?” The man said. 

Dororo paused and turned back to him. “Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t we? You said it’s only three days.” 

He shook his head. “It’s dangerous.” 

“Aniki can handle a few demons.” 

The man snorted. “It’s not the demons that are the problem. There are a lot of steep cliff faces, sudden drops, unsteady paths, rockslides and mudslides. Without an experienced guide, you two could find yourselves plummeting down the mountain because you took an unstable path.” 

Dororo sighed. “Fine, do you know anyone who’s a guide?” 

“I am,” the man said. 

At least they wouldn’t have to search for very long. Dororo pulled out their money, in a rather sad state since they hadn’t managed to get anything substantial for awhile. He hoped it would be enough. 

“How much?” 

“I’m not taking you.” 

“Huh, why not?” 

The man looked at Hyakkimaru, who had stopped walking away and was now looking at them. “He’s blind, right?” 

“Um, yeah?” Dororo turned to look at him. Why would that be a problem? Hyakkimaru was more capable than most people at just about everything. If anything, his current state was a benefit because he could easily spot demons. 

“It’s too dangerous. I can’t afford to lead a blind man around an already dangerous path.” He stood up. “Sorry kid, but your brother’s a hinderance.” 

“Aniki’s a hinderance?” He frowned and walked to Hyakkimaru, taking his hand and leading him to the village. “Who cares about that guy? We’ll find someone else to take us through the pass.”

oOoOoOo

Nishimura pursed his lips. He had to choose a kid that no one would notice was missing. The last thing he needed was a hunt for his head by the villagers. The problem was that there were very few orphans way up here and the town was small enough that not a lot of travelers came through. 

A child. A child. Where could he get a child? Maybe he could take an entire family to the demons? It’d be going above and beyond, but he was sure the demons wouldn’t _ hate _ the idea of having more food. Unless they were on a diet. 

He heard laughter coming from Tanaka. He was talking to two kids Nishimura had never seen before. Strange. 

“Yeah, not with that leg.” He pointed to the older boy’s leg. 

“What’s wrong with his leg?” the younger one asked, hands on hips and looking like he was about to fight someone. 

“You seriously think you can get over the pass on a prosthetic? Give me a break.” Tanaka waved them off and went back to his food. 

The older one turned and started walking away. 

“Hey, aniki, don’t leave me behind!” 

Nishimura grinned. Perfect. The perfect opportunity had fallen into his lap. It was almost as if the gods had blessed him with good fortune. That was, of course, not the case since he had renounced them and the path of good not twenty-four hours previously, but it was still a wonderful stroke of luck. 

The boys sat down on the bench, right next to him. _ Play it cool, Nishimura. No need to come across creepy. _

“I don’t get why no one wants to take us,” the younger one said. “I know you have prosthetics, but you can still make it over the pass.”

“I can take you if you want!” Nishimura winced at how loud and desperate he sounded. 

The boy looked up. “Really? Why? Everyone else seems to think aniki can’t make it.” 

It was the first time Nishimura had actually looked at the older boy. He definitely had a prosthetic leg, and it appeared both his arms were fake as well. Even his eyes were fake. He was blind too? Score! He’d have no trouble offing the kid and then taking the younger one to the demons. It really was his lucky day. 

“Yeah, it’ll be more difficult, but there hasn’t been any rain in awhile so the path should be fairly stable and straightforward.” 

The boy’s face lit up. “How much? We don’t have a lot so--”

Nishimura waved him away. “Honestly, I’m heading there anyways. I’ve got to pick up some materials for my shop. I’ll do it for free.” 

The boy broke out into a smile so wide, Nishimaru was afraid he’d split his face open. 

“Oh, thank you so much! When do we leave? Do we need anything? Are you sure we can do this for free? I know, we can help catch food on the road! Aniki is really good at that.” 

Nishimura laughed and looked at the older boy. He had turned his head and seemed to be staring at him. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. That was ridiculous. The boy couldn’t see. He was probably just turning his head to the sounds of the child. 

Hyakkimaru was staring at Nishimura. His soul reminded him of Daigo, not nearly as bad, but there was still something about him that made him suspicious. He’d have to keep an eye on him. Dororo was too quick to trust and too quick to forgive. If the man tried anything, Hyakkimaru would be ready. 

oOoOoOo

They were going to meet tomorrow morning at dawn. It would allow them a full day of travel and with luck, they’d be able to get to the other side in three days. 

Dororo and Hyakkimaru were waiting at the edge of the village. Dororo was busy weaving flowers together. “It was lucky we found that guy. All those other people were stupid. Your leg and arms aren’t problems.” 

Hyakkimaru said nothing. He didn’t have to and a part of him believed that Dororo didn’t really want him to. He was quite good at keeping up with these one sided conversations and it was nice to listen to him. 

“Aniki, bend over.” 

Strange request, but Hyakkimaru obliged. Dororo giggled and put something on his head. He reached up and patted it, but felt nothing. 

“It’s a flower crown. I’ll make one for me to. I really like these white flowers. I wonder what they’re called?” 

“Hey, are you guys ready?” Nishimura called out, walking up the road with a large bag on his back. 

Dororo gathered up a few more flowers and nodded. “Yeah, we’re ready.” 

He paused and looked down at Hyakkimaru’s hip. “A sword?” 

Hyakkimaru put a hand on it. 

“Yeah, aniki uses it sometimes to defeat demons. Hey, that’s another way we can pay you. We can kill the demons.” 

Nishimura laughed. What the fuck was up with these kids? This kid couldn’t possibly be capable of killing demons. He was blind for god’s sakes. He didn’t even have any arms. How was he supposed to grip the sword with those prosthetics? Dororo must have an amazing imagination. 

They began walking through the forest. He didn’t know where or when the demons would strike. Would they even know that Dororo was the sacrifice? Should he have put teriyaki sauce or something on him before they started? How did demons normally enjoy their food? 

Dororo chattered incessantly about anything and everything. Nishimura was honestly a bit surprised he managed to keep up a one-sided conversation for so long. Though, it was probably because Hyakkimaru never said a word. At this point, Nishimura was wondering if the kid could even talk. Was he mute on top of everything else? 

There was still something unsettling about the kid. His unfocused glass eyes seemed to actually be capable of seeing things. The way he carried himself was also disturbing. It was impossible to look intimidating while wearing a flower crown, but the kid was doing a great job at pulling it off. Perhaps Nishimura had made a mistake with this pair. 

They were getting to the end of the first day and thankfully, Dororo had stopped talking... almost. He still made the most inane observations, though that appeared to be more for Hyakkimaru’s sake than anything. 

There was a crackle of energy in the air. Nishimura smiled. The demons had finally come to take what was theirs. Tomorrow, he could return to the village and start conquering all of Japan. 

A rain of blood and body parts splattered around him. 

“What?” 

“Ah, a demon? Good thing you saw him, aniki. Otherwise we would have been eaten.” Dororo was poking a rather grotesque looking arm with a stick. 

“What?” Nishimura turned to see Hyakkimaru standing on the face of a demon the size of a tree with a sword stuck through its face. 

He swiped the sword out, splitting the head in half and causing the demon the crash to the ground. 

“What?” How had this kid managed to defeat the demon so quickly? Nishimaru barely felt it’s presence. What, did it sneeze or something? 

Hyakkimaru, now covered in blood and viscera walked back to them, sliding the sword (which Nishimura had assumed was nothing more than a useless prop to scare off weak thugs) into his hilt. 

Nishimura shivered as he passed by him. What was this kid. 

“Is there a stream somewhere? Aniki’s kind of gross right now.” 

He nodded and hoped there were still a few demons around to eat the kid. He also hoped they wouldn’t eat him for this. 

Hyakkimaru indeed had a fake leg and two fake arms. His eyes were fake. He was a cripple. A fucking cripple! How did he defeat the demon? And Dororo didn’t even seem bothered by it. If anything, he seemed bored. What the hell? Was Hyakkimaru a demon? 

They settled down for the night, Nishimura’s head spinning with thoughts and plans. He looked over to see the two kids huddled together. Hyakkimaru’s eyes were open. Was he awake? Come to think of it, Nishimura was pretty sure he had never seen the kid blink. He didn’t know anyone with fake eyes so he didn’t know if it was normal or not. 

He went over to the pair. Ah well, that first demon was probably super weak. He didn’t want to make deals with weak demons. The next one would be much better. Hell, he may even be thanked for getting rid of competition. 

_ You, kid, are my ticket to being great. _

He smirked and reached down to ruffle Dororo’s hair. A hand gripped his wrist, cause him to gasp. 

The wood was hard and cool. It was shaped like a human hand, but there was something unsettling about being grabbed this way. It was squeezing his wrist too. Nishimura’s heart was pounding. 

“What are you doing?” Hyakkimaru’s eyes were still fixed at the canopy above them. He hadn’t even turned his head to face him. His voice was soft, but the tone was threatening. 

That solved the mystery as to whether the kid was mute or not. 

Nishimura laughed and tried to pull his hand from Hyakkimaru’s grip. He wouldn’t budge. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Dororo reminds me a lot of my son.” If all else fails, play the sympathy card. “He died a few years ago.” Some fake tears welled up in his eyes, even though Hyakkimaru couldn’t see them. “I guess I just wanted to pretend like my little boy was still alive.” No one could be mean to a grieving father! Not even this weird-ass demon hellspawn parading around as a human teenager. 

Sure enough Hyakkimaru released his hand. Nishimura relaxed. 

“You’re lying.” 

How-how could Hyakkimaru have known that? 

He rolled over to his side, taking Dororo with him and curling around him. “Don’t touch Dororo.” _ Or else _ hung in the air.

Nishimaru stumbled back and put out the fire, because what else could he do in this situation?

oOoOoOo

“This next leg is going to be the most dangerous,” Nishimura said as they packed up. He still felt creeped out by the events from the night before. Still, he had a job to do and he wasn’t going to let Hyakkimaru ruin it for him.

“Really?” Dororo said. He looked a little nervous, which was weird because the kid literally did not react to a demon attacking them. 

“Yep. The mountain has a lot of steep drops and very narrow pathways. You’ll have to be very careful on this next part.”

Dororo nodded. “Okay. I was beginning to wonder why we needed to pay someone to take us over the mountain. Up until this point, nothing’s been that difficult.”

Nishimura led the way with the boys following him. He knew there was a rock demon somewhere along this stretch. It was likely one of the demons he had made a deal with. Not even Hyakkimaru could cut through solid rock. The boy would be helpless to stop it from eating Dororo. Nishimura still had a chance. He could still get his--

A sword went sailing by his ear and embedded itself in a boulder. The boulder let out an unholy shriek before crumbling to pieces. 

Nishimura’s eye twitched. Okay, so Hyakkimaru could, in fact, cut through solid rock. Why did that not surprise him?

“Another demon. Jeeze, I’m starting to think you need to pay us for getting you safely to the other side,” Dororo said. “I thought this path was supposed to be dangerous because of the terrain, not the demons.” 

“Don’t ask me. Come on.” Maybe he was not as lucky as he had thought. Two demons in two days! The kid didn’t even flinch! He really wasn’t human. 

Nishimura should just give up now. Why did he need to make a deal with demons anyways? It was beginning to be more trouble than it was worth. 

“What happened to the path?” Dororo asked. 

He looked up to see that a large section of the ledge had crumbled away. He grinned. It looked like things were looking up. 

He could attach a rope and swing over with Dororo. Once they were on the other side, he’d cut the rope and strand Hyakkimaru. Then, he could continue on without the kid, ensuring that Dororo would be easy pick--

A blur shot past him, nearly knocking him over. He looked to see Hyakkimaru with Dororo on his back on the other side of the ledge. The kid had cleared it in a single leap. How was that possible? 

He put Dororo down. 

“Do you need aniki to help you get over?” Dororo asked. 

“No, I got rope.” Nishimura fastened it and swung across. “I thought I told you guys to wait for me. You have no idea how dangerous that was.” 

Dororo, for his part, did seem to be a bit nervous. He was gripping onto Hyakkimaru like his life depended on it. “Sorry, aniki’s not really used to waiting for other people to take the lead. Except for me.” He peaked at the edge and then went back to hiding his face in Hyakkimaru’s hip. 

Nishimura recognized what was happening. “Are you scared of heights?” 

“Of course not!” Dororo answered, a bit too quickly. “The ledge is just very small and it’s a big drop on the other side. I don’t even see the ground.” He was shaking visibly. 

Great, a kid who didn’t bat an eye when a demon almost ate him but was scared of being high up. Nishimura was starting to get a headache. 

Hyakkimaru bent over and lifted Dororo onto his back. “Close your eyes.” He turned to Nishimaru. 

“You’re not really going to carry the kid the rest of the way? Being top-heavy will make it more difficult to balance.” 

Hyakkimaru stared at him. 

“Alright. Just trying to warn you.” Who cared at this point whether these kids lived or died? They were way more trouble than they were worth. 

Hyakkimaru was not slowed down by having Dororo on his back. If anything, he sped up. Nishimura didn’t even begin to try and understand it. Once they were down from the steepest part, Hyakkimaru put Dororo down and they continued walking as if nothing happened. Dororo was back to talking non-stop about topics Nishimura could barely follow. 

oOoOoOo

It was the final day of their journey. There was one more demon Nishimura was certain lived in the mountains. Even though the last two had been utterly hopeless against some blind kid missing half of his limbs, he still felt a small glimmer of hope. 

The tengu that lived up here was terrifying and made off with many victims. It was such a big problem that the lord of this land actually sent samurais to try and deal with it. All of them died. Over the years, various priests, monks, exorcists, and slayers attempted to defeat the beast, only to fail over and over again. Hyakkimaru may have defeated the rock demon and the forest demon, but there was no way he’d defeat this tengu. 

They were coming up on its territory. It was likely already smelling Dororo and waiting for him to get a bit closer. Nishimura grinned. He could feel the power in the air. Power that was soon to be his. 

Hyakkimaru let out a noise of surprise. Before he could draw his sword, he was knocked to the ground by a large creature that was part bird, part dog, part man. 

It quickly turned to Dororo and lunged at him. Nishimura dove out of the way. This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for!

“Dororo!” Hyakkimaru managed to tackle Dororo out of the way of the beast’s mouth, just in time as the monster’s beak embedded itself in the ground where Dororo was standing. The monster crashed into the ground, uprooting several trees in the process. 

Could anything stop Hyakkimaru? He should have slit his throat and taken Dororo on the first night. Oh well, the sword on his hip had been embedded in a tree behind the tengu. There was no way Hyakkimaru would be able to--

Dororo pulled off Hyakkimaru’s arms. Hyakkimaru lunged at the Tengu. 

“He’s got fucking swords for arms?” 

Dororo nodded and crouched behind a tree, making no moves to run away from the monster. “Aniki’s really cool, isn’t he?” 

“I hate my life.” 

Hyakkimaru made quick work of the demon, something a whole army of samurai couldn’t do. He split it right down the middle, as if he were cutting fucking rice cakes. The monster collapsed to the ground, dead. Dororo ran out with the two prosthetics and attached them back onto Hyakkimaru’s arms. 

“Did you get anything back?” Dororo asked. 

Hyakkimaru doubled over and for a second, Nishimura thought the tengu had gotten a hit. Instead, Hyakkimaru spit out several teeth and what looked to be a fake tongue before standing back up. 

Dororo did not seem alarmed by this little display. Instead, his eyes sparkled with delight. “Oh! Now you can taste things! This is going to be so great. The first place we find selling manju, we’re going to buy some. Oh, and fish cakes. Oh! We also need to try donburi. And ramen. And tempura, but not chicken tempura because that’s not as good as shrimp tempura. But there’s also fried lotus. And manju! Did I already mention manju? We can eat lots of manju. When we have money, of course. There’s also eel, nato, onigiri, rice porridge--” Dororo grabbed Hyakkimaru’s wrist and led him down the path. 

He stopped and turned to Nishimura. “Don’t you need to lead us? Or is the path safe now that we’re down from the mountain.” 

Nishimura sighed and walked to them. “No, I’ll lead you the rest of the way.” 

They arrived at the village not long afterwards, Dororo still listing off food he and Hyakkimaru would have to try now that he could taste it. 

“Alright, kids, here’s the village. Hope you enjoy… whatever it was you wanted to do here.” 

Dororo beamed. “Yeah, thanks for taking up through the mountain! That one pass was really scary. I hope the demons didn’t scare you too much. Now it should be much safer to cross it, now that they aren’t there.”

“You bet.” Ah, he supposed this was the Buddha’s way of politely telling him not to mess with demons anymore. If this was the trouble he had to go through before even making the deal, then who knows what sort of misfortune were to fall on him after. He supposed it could have been much worse. No one knew he had done such a horrible thing and he was able to walk away from this scott-free. 

Dororo ran off to the village. 

“I know what you are.” The voice was so quiet, Nishimura wasn’t sure Hyakkimaru had said anything to him. 

As he walked by, his glass eyes did indeed bore into his soul. He saw everything Nishimura had ever done wrong. His heart felt like ice and his body went numb. 

_ I know what you are. _

Not _ I know what you did _. No, _ I know what you are. _

Nishimura shivered and decided it would be a good time to go pray at the local temple. Hyakkimaru had made it abundantly clear that things could have gone a lot worse for him, and there was still a chance they might. He did have to go back across the pass tomorrow, after all. 

oOoOoOo

“Hey, aniki,” Dororo said as they sat down to eat dinner. “What did you think of Nishimura? He seemed kind of strange.” 

Hyakkimaru looked down at his fish. He could tell Dororo what he had seen, the color of the man’s soul. But there was no point. The problem had been dealt with. He bit into the fish, the flavor was strange and not at all what he had expected, though he hadn’t expected much since he had never tasted anything before. 

“The fish is good.” 

Dororo’s soul lit up. “Really! That’s great. I’d hate for the first thing you taste to be bad. Just wait until you have it with salt, then it’s so much better! Here, have another one.” 

With Dororo thoroughly distracted, they went on with their evening, Nishimura forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m using an older version of the tengu when they were considered to be demons with a particular appetite for small children. It’s interesting to see how they have evolved into being more of a protector spirit in some areas.


End file.
